Developing an identification system for lecturers’ questions 160 

Having discussed various kinds of questions identified to serve different learning contexts at the beginning of this chapter, there is a need to make a classification system for this study which originates in tertiary level content classes with NNS lecturers and students who use English as an L2. Long and Sato (1983) have shown that in ESL classes teachers ask more display questions. Lynch (1991) states that it is the same for content classes, though in content classes the depth of the question could be higher in order to explore the students’ content knowledge to build the concept. However, existing different types of classification systems are suitable for the ESL/EFL classes that deal with language teaching and learning. On the other hand, the systems that are found in the content classes are suitable for a discourse with L1 students. As the initial analysis of questions revealed, the questions in the FAS discourse arising from the NNS students and NNS lecturers are merely basic and directly functional with only a very few focussing on the development of cognitive knowledge or conceptual building. van Lier (1988) advocates that it is immaterial what type of questions are asked but what is important is how the teacher controls the classroom discourse with either display or referential questions.

In this study, therefore, attempts were made to find the function that was executed through lecturer’s questions so that the categories to be developed were suitable to

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capture the different functions of the questions. In tertiary level content classes, for example Morell (2004) classified questions based on ESL classes such as display and referential questions, but there were no question types to reflect the purpose of questions in a content class (e.g. to test how students apply their knowledge in a novel situation). Fortanet (2004) based on university law lectures distinguished questions as non-rhetorical and rhetorical. The non-rhetorical warrants an answer from students, while rhetorical does not. Usually rhetorical questions are asked and answered by the lecturers themselves, but these categories may not be suitable to address the purpose of questions.

Carefully observing the lecture discourse data occurring at FAS, the questions lecturers ask could be classified into four types: 1) Concept Development Questions (CDQs) 2) Knowledge Testing Questions (KTQs) 3) Knowledge Application Questions (KAQs) and 4) Classroom Management Questions (CMQs). Each of these categories is explained below. In the process of identification of these questions to check the reliability of the categories, a colleague of the researcher was asked to identify the questions in two selected samples (lecture transcripts – AS 3 and BT 3) after the process of identification had been explained to him. The categories identified were compared with the researcher for consistency. Even though there were similarities in the identified categories for the subject BT 3, in case of AS 3 the colleague has identified 2 questions as KTQs, while the researcher considered them to be KAQs. Later discussion and more information on the criteria of question types brought the colleague into agreement with the researcher.

These four categories have some conformity with the Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis,

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and evaluation (Krathwohl, 2002). Of which Bloom’s first three are considered to be the lowest and other three are the highest levels. It is assumed that when students work at the higher level they have mastered the lowest levels. That is ‘mastery of each simpler category was prerequisite to mastery of the next more complex one’ (Krathwohl, 2002: 212-213). For example, when students deal with the application level, it is deemed that they have already mastered the knowledge and comprehension levels. Nevertheless, not all of Bloom’s categories are suitable to the present discourse. For example, the classroom management questions that are available in the present discourse are not part of Bloom’s classification. The next section briefly describes these questions and also I further discuss their relationship to Bloom’s taxonomy.

Conceptual Development Questions (CDQs)

These questions are asked by the lecturers as open-ended questions to get different views of the students in order to develop a particular concept or a theme. ‘The teacher asks conceptual questions to elicit students’ ideas and facilitate productive thinking, invites and welcomes students’ responses and questions […]’ (Chin, 2007: 817). Also, it is believed that during guided discussions, teachers primarily ask conceptual questions to elicit student thinking (van Zee et al., 2001). These questions are similar to open ended referential questions and are also similar to Bloom’s synthesis questions. e.g. What is quality?

Knowledge Testing Questions (KTQs)

Knowledge testing questions are used to check the students’ subject knowledge that has been gained in the lectures. They are mostly display type questions and usually require a short answer. Also, they are similar to factual recall questions, which ask the

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students to name, identify, recall, define, etc., and the emphasis is on memory or observation (Ellis, 1993). Many of the KTQs have low cognitive demand. This is also similar to Bloom’s knowledge question category. e.g. What is biotechnology?

Knowledge Application Questions (KAQs)

These questions do not test the knowledge of the students but test how the knowledge could be applied to solve a problem. Usually these questions are used when the lecturers give tasks/worksheets to be solved in the class. This is similar to Myhill’s process questions. Using process questions the teacher can check on the understanding of the learning process or students could explain their thinking (Myhill, 2006) e.g. How do you find the value of R?

It is, however, difficult to differentiate the questions from their appearance as KTQ or KAQ but it is from the subsequent function of the discourse we can categorise the question.

Classroom Management Questions (CMQs)

These questions are not connected with the teaching or learning of the direct content subject. They usually deal with management and organisation of related academic activities like submitting assignments, arranging a practical class, etc. (Myhill, 2006). They are similar to the classroom procedural questions (Richards and Lockheart, 1996). e.g. Did you submit the assignment?

Further, in the interactional exchanges many confirmation checks or clarification requests are found. They play a role in maintaining the interactional flow between the students and lecturers. A clarification request is a direct form of question or request to clarify the preceding utterance of the other speaker, while a confirmation check is

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made to ensure that what is heard by the other speaker is correct. The latter is usually made by repetition of all or part of the other's preceding utterance through rising intonation questions (Long, 1981). Both these are known as elements of negotiating for meaning and are usually made by the lecturer to the students and rarely in the other direction in the observed lectures.

Having described four types of classification systems for questions that have been identified for the main study, the system to classify the interactional episode is described next.